The Gargoyle
Books | Fiction / Gothic
4.2
(877)
Andrew Davidson
An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time.On a burn ward, a man lies between living and dying, so disfigured that no one from his past life would even recognize him. His only comfort comes from imagining various inventive ways to end his misery. Then a woman named Marianne Engel walks into his hospital room, a wild-haired, schizophrenic sculptress on the lam from the psych ward upstairs, who insists that she knows him – that she has known him, in fact, for seven hundred years. She remembers vividly when they met, in another hospital ward at a convent in medieval Germany, when she was a nun and he was a wounded mercenary left to die. If he has forgotten this, he is not to worry: she will prove it to him.And so Marianne Engel begins to tell him their story, carving away his disbelief and slowly drawing him into the orbit and power of a word he'd never uttered: love.
Fantasy
Romance
Mystery
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More Details:
Author
Andrew Davidson
Pages
480
Publisher
Random House of Canada
Published Date
2009-06-23
ISBN
0307371638 9780307371638
Ratings
Google: 5
Community ReviewsSee all
"So beautiful. I go back to this time and time again"
T C
Tammy Callahan
"I absolutely loved it - started on a Friday and finished around dinner on Saturday.
If you like romance, multiple story lines, a little mystery/ creepy vibes then check this out! "
M
Mj
"I had only read the book jacket before diving into this...no reviews whatsoever. So...It was...different. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't this! No deep character development or themes - just a schizophrenic woman who's lived many lives and the burn victim she takes in, who mostly grows out of the shallow **** actor he once was. But, you know, who wouldn't reevaluate their lives after being burned alive? His burns, at least in one area, are to me reminiscent of the ironic judgments Virgil sees in the Inferno. Punishment bizarrely fits the crime. Lol. The section where he withdraws from his morphine addiction a real trip...er...trippy?? Having read the Inferno, it was my favorite part. <br/><br/>The whole book was kinda 'out there'....for someone who doesn't believe in people living multiple lives, it was silly mostly but sheer curiosity about the eventual ending kept me plugging away. And then I was, 'really'?<br/><br/>First novel from this author. Would I read another of his? Eh. Maybe. This was not a book that stayed with me as the days and weeks passed...but I've certainly read worse."
"One of my all time favorites. Has an interesting philosophical quality, and many interesting conversations and self analyses were had because of this book. A great read that I have picked up time and time again, and even included in a Book Club review. Personally, I also recommend the audio book as read by Lincoln Hoppe for this one. I really enjoyed how he brings the depth and flavor out of this one. "
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